Yo yo!! Calling all Ladybros over 30 TTC #1. Join the Berries aboard the Charabanc of lurrrve. Bring real Champagne, from the actual Champagne region. No Colombian builders allowed.

[happylass]

The small print:

The Berries have strict entrance criteria: TTC #1 for 12 months+, over 30, NO instadiffers, must have a special pimping pot and absolutely no mention of baby dust/dancing. Not that we're fussy

Current passengers

WildflowerMarmalade 40 - TTC for three years. FET done in June with immune treatments - waiting for result... Six embryos in the freezer after two freeze all cycles.

Minx 35 in August - TTC 2 years. Stage 4 endometriosis, both tubes blocked, 1 buried ovary, IVF booking in appt in July, hoping to start IVF soon after

Smidge 39, TTC since Jan '13. Unexplained. IVF#1 Short protocol July '14 BFN, IVF#2 Nov'14 and IVF#3 Feb '15 both Long protocol BFNs. High NK cell immune treatment. Natural FET in June '15, awaiting result.

Happylass, 37, TTC since Aug 2012. 2 failed ICSI cycles and 1 failed FET. Hoping to start long awaited NHS cycles in late August provided pesky smear test is sorted by then.

Beaky 35, ttc coming up 3 yrs, 2x failed iui 1x long protocol ivf cancelled 1 BFN following IVF

Tigerdog, 34 (soon to be 35) TTC since Jan 2013. Unexplained. IVF#1 May 2015 resulted in a chemical pregnancy. Now transferring clinics in the hope of a second round of IVF on the NHS and considering an NK cells biopsy in July/August.

barkingtreefrog 36, ttc 3.5 years. clomid bfp summer 2013 then mc @7 weeks, iui bfp summer 2014 then mc @6 weeks. Factor V leiden thrombophilia diagnosed at the repeat mc clinic. IUI bfn Jan 2015, IVF bfn April/May 2015. Currently awaiting nk cells results before a FET possibly in August/September.

Lumen, 35, ttc since Nov 2011, unexplained, two IVF cycles in 2014, both bfns, waiting for lap&dye and results of numerous bloods, aiming for one last IVF cycle.

Kuma - 40. TTC 2.5 years. Low AMH high FSH - DH antisperm ABs. Failed IVF June 14 and March 15. Looking to change clinic and try another natural cycle in June 2015.

Lucieloos, 35, TTC 18 months, low AMH & sperm motility. 1st ICSI in Czech Republic in April BFN.

Rain, 33 ttc since March 2012. unexplained. mystery bfp oct 13, MMC Nov 13. NHS IVF starting in June

Hi all, finally back off holiday and able to log on to the Berries and see what is happening.

Smidge I am so sorry to hear your news, I am gutted for you. Sending hugs your way.

Wild, congratulations on your news, a very long list of drugs but well worth it

I need to check back on the other thread and catch up on everyone's news but just wanted to pop in and say hello. It looks like s lot of you have plans in place which is positive and look like the are a number going through at the same time. I'm keeping everything crossed for you.

If you don't mind I would like to loiter until my 12week scan (don't want to tempt fate)!!

Minx how exciting you get your dates etc next week! I didn't find the drugs prescriptions to be too expensive to be honest, it was £16 something a time, or £8 depending what I was getting. How much is the thing they told you to get? Try Sabai in Newcastle centre by the grainger market, they are amazing and serve wine/tea/latte etc anything really. They also have chargers in case you need to charge your phone

Thank you so much Wild that is hugely helpful! Were you private or NHS? It would be lot of treatment for an NHS clinic! How are you feeling?

Spare when can you start again do you think? Fx you can have NHS funding for the next round. It's so so expensive to pay privately Do ARGC have very specific criteria with that success rate? It's amazing! Also can I be victor meldrew with you?!

Rain and nolly I hope you're enjoying your holidays! Love the Italian too nolly!

Barking fantastic news! What will you be taking for the cycle?

Funky great news that you can get started! I hope you're lining is lovely and springy! never thought I'd say that to anyone

Happy it's totally understandable - I think that my dh sometimes blames my hormones or ttc stress when he needs to take a bit of responsibility! What a shitter about the preggo 15yo and the new baby. Arghhhh.

Lucie when is your consultation with Gennet?

Smidge, thinking of you

I'm spotting already! Very short cycle this one. Has anyone asked their GP to do day 2/21 bloods for a private clinic? I need up to date ones but not sure what they will say.

did you have a lovely holiday? Of course stick around!

Tiger how are you at the mo?

Quick late night question to Lucie, Kuma or anyone else who's taken DHEA. Mine's finally arrived from the US (via Poland!) and I'm not sure how much to take? Was just going to take the 1 tablet a day but I've been Googling and lots of people take 3?? I could potentially be starting treatment in 7 weeks so want to get the full benefit. Very nervous about taking any tbh, worried I'm going to grow an extra head or something!

Happy The standard dose of DHEA is 3 tablets per day (25mg tabs x 3 per day). But that is not based on anything in particular - just that the first IVF patient who took it on her own initiative took the dose and had great results. At least that's what it says in the Rebecca Fett book 'It Starts With The Egg' . There's no proper evidence of what is the best dose to take - which is so helpful for all of us!

I took it for some months before my treatment. Like you, I was nervous. I started off with one tablet a day then tried two a day, but two made me feel quite irritated the whole time (read raging). So I went back to one, then got worried and ramped it back up to two for the last month or so before treatment. I never went up to three because two already felt ample form the way I was feeling. It was hardly scientific - I just went on what felt right.

In answer to your earlier question about when to stop taking it, that was another fudged area for me. I dithered about what to do and ended up taking one tablet one day and then two the next during stimms on my first cycle. On the second cycle I was prescribed a steroid called Dexamethasone which is supposed to to help with egg quality. That seems to work in a similar way to DHEA so I didn't take both.

You won't grow another head, I promise. Many, many fertility clinics actually prescribe DHEA so it isn't going to turn you into the Hulk or something. You might grow a bit of a moustache and get more energy and feel more irritable. My advice is to start with a smaller dose and listen to what your body tells you. Take what you feel comfortable with and fret about it the whole time.

Beaky, my consultation with Gennet is the beginning and of August but I'm hoping to fit in another round of treatment at the clinic I'm with now before it.

Happy, I was also the same with the dhea and wary about how much to take. I was going to start with one or two but my doctor told me the normal dose is 3x25mg and another lady i cycled with in her 40s had very good results and she also said she took the 3 tablets so I decided to give it a go and see how I felt on them. I can honestly say I have had no side effects at all and have been happy to keep on taking the 3 tablets per day although I'm sure they affect everybody differently. It just my opinion but if you only have 7 weeks until your next treatment then I would give the full dose a go. If you do notice any side effects or aren't happy then you can always drop down to 2 tablets.

Happy I've been taking 3 per day for just over a month (I think) and have been fine. I don't really seem to have side effects, I want to do my next round in September so am of the view that if I take 3 per day between now and then, I should get the full benefit of them by the time I have the cycle. I didn't think there was any point in holding back and I definitely haven't got 3 heads. If anything changes I will let you know though! 3 heads would be helpful for work at the moment!

Also the lister clinic has info on their website about it and they recommend 3x25 per day.

Minx was your consultant appointment this week? Or is it next?

Thanks for all your kind words and thoughts berries. 'Gutted' really is the right word. And I've also been feeling incredibly frustrated ANGRY at this whole thing.

But I've just had a read through the latest posts here and it's given me a few new things to try:

• antibiotics. I'm convinced this could help. And an easy thing to try surely AliG could just give me a couple of prescriptions just in case

• ARGC - Wild was that where you were? 70% success rate sounds amazing. MrSmidge and I are coming to England for a couple of years from March 2016 so maybe I can try to get on their waiting list now?!

• DHEA (a bit of statistically unproven help can't hurt - most things fertility seem to be empirical anyway)

• wild's amazing list. I'm going to print this out and see what AliG reckons we can do along these lines.

smidge re ARGC...
We've got an appointment to see them in 6 weeks. I've been reading up on it and the general consensus is:
-They are wildly expensive, and expect you to have a 'go with it' attitude. If they recommend something, they you have to hand over the credit card and do it. They don't seem to give options, they tell you what you need to have done.

• They are a 'throw the kitchen sink at it' kind of place, and some of the treatments will be unconventional/controversial and might not have a google-able evidence base (and will cost money!)
• They seem to take their time. If it takes 3 months for them to prepare your immune system before they start treatment, then they will make you wait.

But yes, their results are quite amazing, so they must be doing something right...

From what I can see, their main acceptance criteria is FSH below 12. Other than that, they seem to take on complex cases and people who haven't had luck at other clinics. People here and on FF have said their cycle has cost anything between £6k-20k depending on how many additional things they need to have done. I'm not even sure if we could stretch to the lower end of that, but it will be interesting to hear what they say about our case.
I can report back more after I've seen them, but it is a 6-8 weeks to get an appointment with them, so probably no huge rush for you to at the moment...

hi everyone...can I join you?

clementineclouds age 38, ttc #1, cycle 1 with clomid (ttc for 14 months).

CD6 today, with my first follicle tracking scan on CD10.

hope I meet the criteria ...although I have no idea what "no instadiffers" means

I'm new to mumsnet, and am trying to keep up with all the ttc acronyms (making my head hurt tho).

minx thanks for that, and yes makes total sense. most of my friends had children younger (and without issues ttc), and all my relatives are having babies left right and centre....

its even getting to the point, where I jump channels on the tv, when I see certain baby adverts, cause it just gets to me, after ttc for so long.

trying to not let it all get too me, just remind myself when I have a bad day, it'll pass and there will be a good day soon...and this will all be worth it in the end.

Hello Clem, welcome! I hope you don't have to stay long and that the clomid works for you. I ended up watching a programme about kids who get taken into hospital etc without their parents last night, it was awful! I did switch over before the end though!

Welcome clem
Please don't take this the wrong way, but when I read 'even getting to the point when I jump channels in the TV...' it made me laugh out loud! That just sounds like perfectly normal behaviour to me, even my DH will now switch over automatically if there is a baby/pg related something on the TV . I'm now at the stage of being of grandparents, of older adults with grown up children, of anything related to children of any age in any way... I am even of my own mother .
With any luck the clomid will work for you (it did for me, 1st time, but I sadly lost it later) and you will never get to the depths I'm at after 3.5 years of it!

Welcome Clem! In the nicest possible way, I hope your stay here is short. But in the meantime we are a friendly bunch, so please use us for handholding and giving you a 'wang' of common sense and reason when it all gets a bit much and you have a bad day...

Welcome Clem. As the others have said I hope your stay here is short but sweet - and I mean that in the nicest possible way!
Thanks for all the info and advice on the DHEA ladies. I think I'm going to start off with just 1 a day and increase my dose gradually over the next few weeks. I'm pretty cranky at the moment anyway as on my knees with end of term-itis so it's not going to take much to tip me over the edge! Far better for me to be taking a higher dose when I'm off work and chilled I think! We finally have our FET follow up at the FC on Sat so I'm going to ask their opinion on it too.
AF rocked up today right on cue so I'll get my smear booked in tomorrow and hopefully that'll get things moving in the right direction to start our next cycle late August. Hope everyone is ok. Only 11 more working days for me before the big one

Welcome Clem! Make yourself at home.

Hey Smidge. I'm not surprised you're feeling angry. Even getting to the point of IVF is a huge emotional investment and to then have it not work out sucks the big one. How come you're moving to the UK? Work?

Barking, I meant to comment after your post the other day, that I too am at the 'fuck this shit' point. Totally sick of ttc and some days I just think so what if there's no baby. I'll go part time and travel the world and have a way fitter body and nicer tits than my friends who have been pushing out babies left, right and centre. But then I have days still where I know I still desperately want it and my heart literally aches. Think it's our minds way of trying to cope with it all. We try to convince ourselves we don't care anymore.

What's happening in 11 days Happy? Holidays a'coming?

Ps. Is swearing allowed in Berry HQ?

I'm still bleeding from the scratch yesterday. Defo didn't bleed this much last time. I'm hoping that means they've given it a right good scratching.

Funky,
You ar definitely fucking allowed to bloody well swear...

Oo Funky I had to cross my legs at "a right good scratching"!

Do the berries have any good holiday reads to recommend please? Nothing baby/fertility/IVF based like my kindle isn't full of that stuff already

Hello all. Just on my way back from a lovely evening with my mate.

at the scratch funky but I did chuckle at the travelling and nicer tits! Mr T and I are talking lots about travel at the moment. I think there is a need for a new life experience that is outside of convention, as the convention of having children is not accessible for us at the moment. Oh and swearing is defintely allowed, fucking bollocks to the lot of it I say. Just found out that weird and fucked up ex colleague with 5 kids from two marriages a piece between him and current wife, is having child no 6 at 50 after a vasectomy reversal. Universe, WTAF are you playing at?! This is not at all fair!

Welcome clem as others have said I hope your stay is short but please make yourself at home!

smidge I'm not surprised you're angry. Good to get a plan together of things to try. Kitchen sink approach seems to have worked well for good lady wild! How are you wild? Will you retest tomorrow on OTD? Have you advised your clinic of the result yet?

I'm tempted by the hidden c test just to rule it out. Other thing I will try is the biopsy at Cov to check for NK cells. Will do that end August as the TTC dates line up nicely for lots of dtd around my birthday weekend in July and the optimist streak in me still thinks it is worth a go. Ha ha.

spare just the thought of spending all the money makes me feel anxious. We could do one cycle at the lower end of that at a push but that would be it for us. I'm just hoping my NHS referral hurries up and comes through. Limbo for me at the moment until then.

I think the talk of mustaches permeated my dreams as I dreamt about my acu lady having a huge beard that covered her whole face the other day - and she takes dhea for menopausal symptoms. Weird. I'm sure you won't grow a beard though happy! at the teen mums although my sister was a teen mum and I've just this minute realised that even if I got pg now, I'll be 20 years

Lucie are you going to go for another cycle straight away then?

beaky I'm pretty well actually. Life is ok. Just booked in a few long weekend and plenty of social plans in the calendar. Ttc wise I'm in limbo till the referral comes in, so I'm just taking few herbal remedies and little else. How are you? Is work manic?

rain hope you're having a lovely holiday in Devon! Being stuck in the office this week has been utterly crap!

Anyway, only Friday to get through. I'm so busy at work so tomorrow will fly by then it's back to MrT. We were away last week so really looking forward to a chilled weekend at home just us.

Night all and waves to those I've missed!

Oops, missing half a sentence amongst that mammoth post - what I meant to say was that if I got pg right now, I'd still be 20 years older than my sister was when she got pg

Been thinking about you Smidge - good to hear from you. You have every right to be angry after all you've had to go through. The clinic I'm at is CRGH not ARGC, confusing amount of initials involved. I looked at ARGC but was put off by the cost (have ended up spending loads anyway) and some of the unproven / cutting edge treatments. That wouldn't put me off now though. I've stopped worrying these treatments are just an expensive con. Now I just feel annoyed that they are not more widely used. If you are interested in that type of approach one of the doctors from CRGH has recently moved to Boston Place Clinic in London where they look t have a similar approach - not too sure on prices but worth checking out.

Yes Beaky we are private patients as we don't qualify for any IVF under the local rules. I do know one lady who was treated on the NHS at the same clinic. She needed PGS because of an inheritable condition. She was given a lot of the same stuff - steroids (very cheap anyway), progesterone injections (expensive). I don't really know how they work that side of things to be honest. Some stuff - eg. Intralipids the NHS doesn't accept as being a proven treatment and will not pay for.

Welcome Clem. Sorry you find yourself here but Berry support is unsurpassed. Barking your reply to Clem was spot on and made me laugh.

Beaky were you asking about getting bloods for a private clinic done at the GP? I did that when I needed updated results, the nurse was very helpful. They were fine with most of them except for one thyroid type test which is a bit specialised and the GP refused to pay for it. ne brass necked and take what you can get.

Also Smidge look up the Bond protocol. It seems to have a lot in common with the treatment plan I got.